


My Heart Loves the View

by smaragdbird



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Cats, Fluff, Gen, background Poe/Finn - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-23
Updated: 2017-10-23
Packaged: 2019-01-21 20:28:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,111
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12465312
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/smaragdbird/pseuds/smaragdbird
Summary: Finn rescues a cat





	My Heart Loves the View

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TuppingLiberty](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TuppingLiberty/gifts).



> Dedicated to all the cats in the world, especially the two I've got at home.

Now that he was allowed to leave the infirmary, Finn liked to explore the surroundings of the base. This was he got the exercise he needed to get used to his new spine while not being in anyone’s way. D’qar was a temperate planet with most of its habitable continent covered in grasslands and there was a lake less than a click from the base that Finn liked to walk to.

The part of him that had been trained as a soldier had noticed right from the start that the base was not defensible against any kind of ground force or aerial bombardment. But the part of him that had been raised primarily on space stations and star destroyers simply enjoyed being outside without it being training or a mission or having to run for his life.

Finn was about to toe his shoes off and wade into the water when he noticed something from the corner of his eyes. A cat was sitting at the lake’s edge. Finn had seen holos of cats before but he had never seen a live one. The cat looked a lot smaller and thinner than the ones from the holos and her fur was matted with mud.

“Hey”, Finn said softly and crouched down, extending his hand towards the cat.

The cat barely reacted, only letting out another pitiful sound. Finn thought that she looked cold with her fur being damp and dirty, and hungry. The First Order had taught him nothing about cats except that they were common, useful pets in agricultural societies to keep rodents away.

Crouching like this did his back no favours but Finn didn’t just want to leave the cat here, not when she looked this helpless. Maybe someone at base could help him. Poe and Rey were away on a mission but someone else might know something about cats. In a organisation as diverse as the Resistance someone had to come from an agricultural society.

Finn took off his shirt and used it to carefully scoop the cat up from the muddy ground. She let out another pitiful sound but didn’t otherwise try to fight him.

/

“Hey, Jess.”

Jess blinked a couple times before she could tear her eyes away from his naked chest. “And here I thought you’d keep your shirtless wanderings of the base to days when Poe is actually here”, Jess said more to herself than to Finn.

Finn felt his face warm but instead he showed her the cat wrapped up in his shirt. “I found her at the lake.”

Jess cooed, carefully brushing some mud from the cat’s face with her finger.

“She looked miserable, that’s why I took her but I don’t know what to do”, Finn confessed.

Jess looked up from the cat and grinned at Finn. “You’ve come to the right person. I’ve grown up with cats.”

Finn frowned. “I thought you grew up on Chandrila. Isn’t that an industrial planet?”

“Sure, why?” Jess looked confused by his question.

“I was taught that cats are only used in agricultural societies as pest control.”

Jess got that look on her face that Finn had seen on Poe’s as well. Not pity, more like sadness that he had missed out on something she saw as self-evident. “That’s true, but some people also keep them as pets. Cats are awesome pets.” She smiled at him and then down at the cat in his arms. “You’ll see.”

/

Jess helped him to dry the cat and comb the mud from her fur before leaving to procure something to eat from the kitchen. Finn had expected the cat to flee as soon as she was free of his shirt but instead she just lay there.

“Hey, don’t give up”, Finn said softly, carefully stroking the cat’s head. “You’ll be fine.”  
As if on cue Jess came back, holding a bowl of fish. She showed Fin how to crumble the meet between his fingers so that the cat could lick it up without much effort. She lapped up the food enthusiastically and fell asleep soon after, still lying on Finn’s legs.

“Looks like Poe will have competition for your affection when he comes back”, Jess commented as she watched Finn stroke the cat gently, so she wouldn’t wake up.

“Well, he has BB-8”, Finn replied. He could feel the cat’s body rise and fall with each breath under his fingertips. No wonder people kept them as pets. “Do you think I can keep her?”

“I don’t see why not”, Jess said. “You saved all our asses. Letting you keep the kitten you just rescued is the least any of us can do for you.”

Finn always felt a little uncomfortable when someone talked about what he had done for the Resistance on the Starkiller Base as if his primary goal hadn’t been just to save Rey.

If Jess noticed it, she didn’t comment on it, instead she asked, “Do you have a name for her?”

/

Finn was sitting cross legged on his bed, a piece of flimsi in his hand that Cat was batting for as if it was prey, when the door opened. Both he and Cat turned towards Poe who was standing in the doorway, staring back at them, BB8 at his heel.

“Hey Finn, found a new roommate while I was gone?” Poe asked and walked in. BB8 rolled over to the edge of Finn’s bed and made a curious beep at Cat.

“Hey”, Finn replied. “I found her at the lake.”

“I know”, Poe said as he sat down his helmet on the dresser. “Jess told me. Some people greet their partner right away when they come back from a mission but I can see you were distracted”, Poe added and leaned over to kiss Finn.

“Sorry”, Finn murmured and pulled Poe closer as he returned the kiss. “I missed you.”

“Missed you, too”, Poe replied and sat down on the bed next to Finn. But instead of another kiss, Poe looked at Cat and held out his hand towards her so she could get used to his smell. “Hey there, Finn’s new roommate. You’ve got a name?”

“I’m calling her Cat”, Finn said, suddenly feeling a little embarrassed about his lack of creativity.

But didn’t comment on it, instead he scratched Cat behind her ears and said, “Nice to meet you, Cat.”

“I asked General Organa…I mean…I want to keep her if that’s okay with you”, Finn said, stroking Cat’s back. 

“Sure, after all you’re letting me keep BB8”, Poe grinned when BB8 let out a series of loud protests that Finn didn’t need to speak binary for to translate.


End file.
